Site Upgrade Progress Report

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  • twistsol
    Veteran Member
    • Dec 2002
    • 2892
    • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
    • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

    Site Upgrade Progress Report

    While not much has been visible to you, there has been a fair amount of progress toward upgrading and rebranding the site. Here's what has been completed so far.
    • Progress started with recovery of the articles that were inaccessible after the server move.
    • The downtime last weekend let us get a copy of the server and database and get our development server up and running.
    • Confirmed that there was no loss of data in the development server build.
    • We've tested multiple upgrade versions and processes, some successful and some not so much.
    • This weekend an upgrade plan was put together to get us on to a modern, and more importantly, still supported version of the vBulletin software.


    This week we'll be testing the upgrade process we've defined to determine timing for all the technical steps and put a timeline in place as well as identifying any issues that will need to be addressed during the upgrade. Once the timeline has been determined, I'll post it here in a followup. I also plan to post weekly progress reports.

    Geek stuff for those of you that care.
    • The site today uses a number of third party programs to overcome deficiencies in the older versions of vBulletin.
    • We are currently on version 3.8.7
    • The only third party program that continues to function in vBulletin 5 and higher is Tapatalk.
    • vBulletin 5 requires an OS upgrade to run on our server and our current version won't run on the upgraded OS. We are planning to upgrade to the 4.x series of vBulletin specifically 4.2.2 path level 4 which is still supported and also supports the add on programs we have today and will run on our OS without an upgrade.
    • We will also be upgrading to the last version of vbAdvanced. Since vBulletin 5 has nearly everything built in that was in this add on, the developer no longer offers the product.
    • A direct upgrade to vBulletin 5.x is not an option in part because of the OS upgrade issue, but in the change from version 4 to 5, the introduced new syles, page design structures, templates, etc. that essentially means that everything other than content in the forums needs to be rebuilt from scratch.
    • Next steps are to upgrade the OS and then upgrade to version 5.x of bulletin with the necessary site rebuild.
    Chr's
    __________
    An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
    A moral man does it.
  • twistsol
    Veteran Member
    • Dec 2002
    • 2892
    • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
    • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

    #2
    First things first. The upgrade is planned for Saturday morning April 25th. Now that that’s out of the way …

    This week the development site was upgraded from our current version 3.8.7 to 4.2.2 patch level 4. There were some hiccups along the way but in general, all went according to plan.

    We will need another downtime on April 11, 8-10 central time to grab an export of the site. We’ll use this to restore the development server to the same state as production, and practice the upgrade one more time to make sure the detailed plan isn’t missing any steps.

    From April 13-22, The moderators and staff will be doing testing to ensure everything still works as expected and on the 22nd we will make a go no-go decision on the upgrade.

    For the upgrade itself, The site will be down at 8:00 am central time on Saturday April 25th. We will start with a backup and then perform the upgrade. If everything goes well it should be back up in about 3 hours. If things go badly, and the site isn’t back up by 1:00, we’ll nuke the site from orbit and head for earth … or restore from the backup.
    Chr's
    __________
    An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
    A moral man does it.

    Comment

    • TB Roye
      Veteran Member
      • Jan 2004
      • 2969
      • Sacramento, CA, USA.
      • BT3100

      #3
      It amazes me how the group is doing this with you spread out all over the country. How do you communicate during these processes. Text, Email, Landline, Cell? When I was work we were all in the same location or at least in the same city so we would meet were the server was.

      Tom

      Comment

      • twistsol
        Veteran Member
        • Dec 2002
        • 2892
        • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
        • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

        #4
        All of the above as well as pm's and the moderator forum. I honestly have no idea where in the world our server is though the hosting company is based in Canada.

        Technology has allowed work methods to change. At work, we are doing our month end close; my team is at home in Colorado, Detroit, Florida, Kansas City and New York, and I run things from Sacramento, and only because my internet access at home is almost unusable. I almost never see the guy that only lives 10 miles from the office.

        When I worked for GM I travelled to the offshore office one week a month. I didn't mind, though. It was in Kingston, Jamaica. Going home was tough though.
        Chr's
        __________
        An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
        A moral man does it.

        Comment

        • twistsol
          Veteran Member
          • Dec 2002
          • 2892
          • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
          • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

          #5
          Reminder: Downtime Saturday morning at 8AM central

          Progress on the upgrade is continuing. This week most of the work has been data wrangling centered around finding all the stuff that for one reason or another wandered away from the herd and off to take a nap somewhere on the server. Attachments here, pictures there, and articles, which have always been cantankerous, are up to their old tricks again. All have been identified, roped, branded and hog tied. Enough of the cowboy theme.

          Other work is on the boring stuff, test planning and cutover planning and basically trying to determine how much can be accomplished on a Saturday morning.
          Chr's
          __________
          An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
          A moral man does it.

          Comment

          • twistsol
            Veteran Member
            • Dec 2002
            • 2892
            • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
            • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

            #6
            The downtime for April 11th is complete
            Chr's
            __________
            An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
            A moral man does it.

            Comment

            • jussi
              Veteran Member
              • Jan 2007
              • 2162

              #7
              Thanks again for the hard work
              I reject your reality and substitute my own.

              Comment

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